Smith and Mills Responds to Neighbor’s Accusations

Looks like a nice, quiet place.

Early this morning, we got a nebulous e-mail from an anonymous tipster: “Mayor Task force just moved in on Smith and Mills.…About get nailed lying on supreme court. SLA about nail them too.…Guess fraud on supreme court pretty big deal after all when in name liquor license. Every dept hammering them one by one.” Down by the Hipster today reprints a longer version of the screed, saying it comes from an upstairs neighbor: Best we can tell, it accuses the restaurant of everything from lighting a woman’s coat on fire (pyros!) to electrical, plumbing, and soundproofing issues, as well as pretending to have a kitchen (presumably their pâté is just magically created by Food Boy).

Smith and Mills owner Matt Abramcyk tells us he thinks the person behind the missive is Victoria Hillstron, the neighbor who the bar is taking to court: “She has cornered my partner, yells at our staff, yells at our customers — she’s a real-life nightmare.” Abramcyk says the woman doesn’t have a lease on the space: That belongs to Carlos Almata, who lets her stay there while he tends to his London restaurant, Automat. Smith and Mills has offered her $20,000 to move, to no avail.

“We sued the landlord because we’re doing everything according to the law. There’s no reason we have to deal with this woman coming in and bothering us.” According to Abramcyk, Hillstron called the cops nightly and once attempted to follow his partner, Akiva Elstein, into the basement, causing Elstein to begin avoiding his own bar. The court case continues: Abramcyk says Hillstron has not yet hired a lawyer and is in default, and he expects her to be evicted. After which we assume there will be a nice, quiet party at Smith and Mills.